A reception will be held on November 1 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm in the hallway of the Lakehouse where you can meet Bonnie Younginer. Refreshments will be served. Masks are required when not eating or drinking. If you cannot attend the reception you can still view Bonnie’s artworks throughout the month of November as they will be displayed in the hall between the lobby of the Lakehouse and the library.
Bonnie is originally from upstate South Carolina. She moved to Columbia in 1975 to attend the University of South Carolina and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree and added additional courses in Studio Art. She moved with her husband, Michael, permanently to Seabrook Island in July 2019. She has been married 40 years and they have two grown sons and one granddaughter.
Bonnie considers herself to be a fiber artist. She took up weaving as a hobby about 15 years ago, after retiring from a 30-year career in interior design. She loves the meditative qualities of the art form and ability to look at the marsh or tree and try to form the scene with wool. She mostly weaves interruptive tapestries on a large upright tapestry loom. She also weaves on a Rigid Heddle loom, allowing the ability to use other weaving techniques not usually done on an upright loom. The weft (the yarn that goes across the weaving) is almost always done with wool yarn or wool fibers, while the warp (the vertical strings) is always done with cotton rug warp for the strength and durability of the weaving.
Bonnie likes to include “dangle”, which she makes out of polymer clay to complement each weaving. Some pieces use beading that hang from the bottom of the weaving. Her love of fiber art has grown to include needle felting abstract forms as well. These are done using a barbed needle to hand “felt” the wool fibers or yarns to a substrate, creating colorful hangings.
Bonnie has pieces hanging in the boutique hotel, Hotel Trundle, in Columbia and at the Pink Lotus Yoga Center in Lexington, South Carolina. She was selected twice to show at the Indie Art Show Crafty Feast.
-Submitted by Sharon Peck
(Image credit: SIAG)